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FRANCIS AQUILA STOUT 




NEW-YORK 
1894 






1 la 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 



Introductory Remarks ... 5 

By E. S. Nadal. 

Francis Aquila Stout. A Study. . 24 
By Gen. John Meredith Read. 

The Nicaragua Canal . . .88 
By Commander Henry C. Taylor. 

Notices of the Press . . -94 

Resolutions of Societies . .108 




INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 
By £. S. Nadal 

|HE relations to business, char- 
ity, and such public matters, of 
the subject of this little book 
have been spoken of by others more 
conversant with them than I am. These 
gentlemen have described the important 
character of Mr. Stout's services to the 
State survey, and to the scheme for 
building an inter-oceanic canal in Nica- 
ragua, and of his labors for reform and 
charitable objects. But to me, who was 
5 



a close friend of his, has been set the 
task of giving some account of the per- 
sonality of Mr. Stout. His devotion to 
public concerns, however, was an im- 
portant part of his character. It was 
one of the qualities which made him 
such good company. The attraction of 
these subjects is that they take men out 
of the dull, narrow, and trivial concerns 
of their daily life. Men are more inter- 
esting if they care for them than if they 
care only for their private business or 
personal affairs. It is one of our Amer- 
ican social misfortunes that so few men 
are greatly interested in them. Mr. 
Stout's acquaintance with, and his lively 
curiosity regarding, these themes added 
to the interest of his character and con- 
versation. His attention to them, how- 
ever, was not merely that of the observer. 
It was a practical interest that he had 
6 



as well. He wished to have a hand in 
them. I think that his long residence 
in France, where his interest in public 
matters was necessarily that of a looker- 
on, had had the result of giving a spe- 
cial zest to the interest he took in pub- 
lic affairs at home. He knew France 
extremely well, was greatly interested 
in the affairs of that country, and indeed 
took a lively and intelligent interest in 
the course of affairs in Europe. During 
his foreign residence, however, I dare 
say that a man with so active a mind 
must have felt regret that his interest 
could only be that of a spectator. In 
this country, on the other hand, his feel- 
ing seemed to be : " Here is my coun- 
try and city; here I am at home, and 
may take my part with others of my 
countrymen in movements relating to 
great affairs." 

7 



He had indeed very superior gifts for 
public occupations. These talents were 
mainly the result of his unusual knowl- 
edge of human nature. It is rare to 
meet any one better versed in men 
than he was. His perceptions of men's 
minds, besides being large, were very 
delicate and subtle. And he had a 
practical tact to match these mental 
qualities. He would, by the way, have 
made an excellent diplomatist. He had 
unusual skill in approaching men, the 
foundation of which talent was a broad 
comprehension of the situation in which 
he approached them, united with natu- 
ral kindness and sympathy. I call to 
mind a number of illustrations of this 
quality, many of which came under my 
own observation. This may serve as 
an instance. Once he had occasion to 
ask a favor of the late Mr. John Mor- 
8 



risey at a time when Mr. Morrisey was 
a member of the State legislature and 
in a position to aid Mr. Stout in a cer- 
tain public undertaking which he had 
much at heart. He went to see Mr. 
Morrisey, to whom he was unknown, 
and in a few words explained his busi- 
ness and the service he desired of him ; 
and he did it in such a manner that the 
ex-prize-fighter, evidently touched and 
pleased, grasped him by the hand and 
said, " I will," in a way that was almost 
fervent. I should add that Mr. Mor- 
risey kept his word. It is a trivial in- 
cident, but characteristic. Mr. Stout's 
success in this case was due to the com- 
prehension which he had of men, and 
to his nice sense of the manner of ap- 
proach which would be most agreeable 
to Mr. Morrisey ; but it was probably 
also in part the result of the fact that 
9 



he had a real sympathy and apprecia- 
tion for a man who, from such begin- 
nings as Mr. Morrisey's, had obtained 
a position of influence and a public 
character certainly as good as that of 
many men whose opportunities had 
been better. 

In the years of my first acquaintance 
with him he was very much occupied 
with public affairs. How often at that 
time, on coming into the old club on 
Fifteenth Street very late at night (for 
Mr. Stout's hours were very late), have 
I seen him, when the club looked quiet 
and deserted and the waiters weary, in 
the little room to the right of the hall, 
alone, and reading the paper with an 
absorbed expression peculiar to him. 
Perhaps we would have a half-hour's 
talk, and he would be in the friendliest 
and most sympathetic of moods, and as 



a mark of especial friendship would give 
me some piece of information known 
only to the initiated and the very well 
informed. Or perhaps he would be 
closeted with one or more of his chosen 
friends, deeply engaged in consultation 
respecting some new movement for the 
advantage of the state. A man much 
in his company at this time, and who 
always remained one of his dearest 
friends, was the late Albert Gallatin 
Browne. Browne was a highly culti- 
vated man, of wide and exact informa- 
tion and of a most honorable and gentle 
disposition, in whose dark and hand- 
some features, Italian in character, one 
easily read an ingenuous disposition and 
warm and affectionate impulses, and 
whose portly figure concealed as brave 
a heart as any Paladin's of old ; — a man, 
moreover, who always impressed me as 



ii 



carrying about with him, along with 
some cynicism and levity of speech and 
manner, a kind of silent creed or phi- 
losophy of life. The two friends were 
often to be seen at one in the morning 
sitting on opposite sides of the table 
in the little reading-room. And there 
would sometimes be other friends about 
that table. 

This would probably be somewhere 
in the early seventies, a time when the 
modern critical and reform spirit was 
first active in this country. I remember 
well a certain journey which was made 
to the convention which nominated Mr. 
Hayes for President. A few persons 
who wished to see the convention, and 
who thought it might be possible for 
them to further in some way the con- 
summation they had most at heart, 
namely, the nomination of Mr. Bristow, 

12 



started one afternoon from Jersey City 
for a thirty hours' journey to Cincinnati. 
There were perhaps half a dozen people 
in the car, all bound on the same errand 
and inspired by the same purpose. Mr. 
Stout was of this party, and several of 
his special friends, among them Albert 
Browne and George Dillaway. Arthur 
Sedgwick was one of the company. 
The road lay through scenery very fa- 
miliar to me — followed the rich pas- 
tures of Dutch Pennsylvania and skirted 
the shores of the Susquehanna and the 
Juniata. The trip was one of the inci- 
dents of my life that I remember with 
the most pleasure. Few situations could 
be more agreeable than this, which per- 
mitted me to look out upon familiar and 
long-admired scenery and hear close at 
hand the discourse of valued friends 
upon a theme so dignified and of such 
13 



pressing practical importance as that 
which then occupied their minds. After 
that journey I saw a good deal of Mr. 
Stout. Later I went abroad, to stay a 
long time. But I saw much of him and 
of his family on visits to this country, 
and when I came back to live here in 
1883. In 1884 he married, and his 
friends were very fortunate in that mar- 
riage. His young wife, who seemed to 
share his genius for friendship, chose to 
regard his friends as her own. We still 
had the social conversations of former 
times. For a good many years the 
same people dined at his house on Six- 
teenth Street on Sunday evenings. 

On these occasions the mind and 
character of our friend would show 
forth very clearly. The talk perhaps 
ran on national or city politics, or some 
of the public enterprises with which he 
14 



was most closely interested. Or it was 
perhaps about people, and he took a 
great deal of interest in people. He 
knew people's histories very well, and 
was as likely as any one to give the 
just view of some individual who was 
discussed. Although there was gossip, 
there was no scandal and very little 
fault-finding. He spoke little against 
people, because he was too kind and 
had too much good breeding. He was 
a man with a capacity for strong dis- 
likes, but he had arrived at that time 
of life when the discovery is made that 
one must be exclusive in cne's animos- 
ities and cannot be at the trouble of 
disliking more than two or three people 
very much. I fancy that with him these 
were in most cases people of a past gen- 
eration, whom for good reason he had 
learned to dislike in his youth. Of these 
15 



feelings he was tenacious, for tenacity 
was a part of his character. He clung 
to old feelings and habits of thought. 
For instance, although he was in later 
days a supporter of Mr. Cleveland, he 
still had in many respects the feelings 
of an old-fashioned abolitionist, and it 
was not difficult to call these feelings to 
the surface. Thus I don't think that it 
would have been pleasant for him to 
hear any one describe the members of 
the race which was the cause of the war 
by any other epithet than " colored/ ' 
Although he had a great deal of ability 
for satirical perception, he much pre- 
ferred to praise. It was his habit to 
set the tone of conversation with such 
a remark as " How well A is doing that 
work/' or " That was a singularly good 
speech of B's," or to announce in a 
decided way a virtue or a talent which 
16 



he had discovered in some individual. 
With the keen satirical perception just 
alluded to he united a great deal of 
sentiment ; the quality by some persons 
might have been called sentimentality. 
He had to a considerable degree that 
view of life which is entertained by 
young persons, and which finds expres- 
sion in poems and novels. This was 
the result of the freshness of his mind. 
As the talk on these Sunday even- 
ings ran on public or private matters, 
on society or individuals, we could see 
that the great pleasure of our friend's 
life was the study of his kind. He was 
very human, and man, in whatever form 
he chanced to exhibit himself, was the 
one object of interest to him. The fact 
that he had never been compelled to 
follow a business, and had never been 
in one, here showed its effect upon him ; 
17 



his leisure had allowed his mind, which 
was well suited for such an employ- 
ment, to roam at large among the ranks 
of men and to derive great enjoyment 
from the spectacle. His interest in this 
pursuit was perhaps all the more real 
because it was unconscious, and because 
he followed the study for its own sake, 
and not, as so many of us writing people 
do, with the idea of making some kind 
of literary or other use of the instruc- 
tion to be gained from it. But I am 
not sure that he did not have decided 
literary gift; that quality is one which 
inheres in the mind, its relation to ink 
and paper being immaterial. I used to 
notice, especially when the conversation 
was between ourselves, that his expres- 
sions had a truthfulness and a closeness 
to the fact which we whose business is 
writing appreciate, for it is only when 
18 



we speak so that what we say has any 
value. It was by this sort of uncon- 
scious study of mankind, 1 say, that 
his mind had been formed. Men had 
been his university. He was, however, 
interested in books, and fond of them. 
For matters of art he cared greatly. 
He knew a great deal about contem- 
porary French art. 

One or two more traits may be re- 
ferred to. He was singularly a gentle- 
man. Nobody, so far as I know, has 
ever succeeded in defining that charac- 
ter, and it is not a matter upon which 
one can say much. You can say no 
more of a man than to so define him, and 
you can say it in one word. A reflection 
or two, however, may be allowed one. 
I have always had a notion that intel- 
lectual ability was unfavorable to the 
finest aspects of the gentlemanly char- 
19 



acter, because likely to be accompanied 
by an aggressive or an exacting quality 
of mind, which is unfavorable to that 
character. Mr. Stout, however, was a 
man of superior intellect, and yet he 
was especially a gentleman ; but in him 
there was so little that was exacting 
or selfishly aggressive. Might not one 
say this also, that a gentleman is likely 
to have a power of showing his mind 
clearly to you, that you see him face to 
face, while with a person of a different 
kind you see through a glass darkly? 
I am not sure that this generaliza- 
tion will hold, but certainly one of Mr. 
Stout's traits was an instinctive sincer- 
ity. His thoughts and feelings showed 
themselves most plainly in his counte- 
nance. He had a capacity for frankness 
and candor which is not common. 
One very important trait should be 

20 



indicated. There was a great deal in 
him that was feminine. He had to 
an extraordinary degree that charac- 
ter sketched by Tennyson in one of his 
recent utterances : 

" While man and woman still are incomplete, 
I prize that soul where man and woman meet.' , 

He had an almost womanly sympa- 
thy. Mr. Stout's sympathy for any 
kind of suffering was probably due in 
some degree to the long illness of his 
youth. I should not be surprised if the 
same cause had something to do with 
his very earnest feelings about slavery. 
But indeed sympathy was part and par- 
cel of his character. All his many fine 
traits rested on the largeness of his 
heart, supplemented by an honest na- 
ture. With such a nature he could not 
help being a singularly true man in all 

21 



the relations of life. It seems to me 
that I have perhaps never known a man 
who was so good a son. Allusion has 
been made to his gift for friendship. 
In this he was unique. He was first of 
all a friend. A man who had won his 
esteem and affection stood apart, to his 
mind, from the mass of his fellows in a 
peculiar light. I may here record that 
he had a way of pronouncing the name 
of an attached friend which was of itself 
significant. He spoke the name in a 
manner and in a tone of voice which 
had something the effect of a prefix of 
nobility. 

Such was the friend whom we have 
lost, and in such a manner as this he 
will always remain in our hearts. It 
was long before we could realize that 
we should see him no more, and it 
has been only by degrees that I have 

22 



lost the feeling that, by turning down 
the familiar street, I might find him 
again in the house in which I have 
enjoyed so many hours of easy inter- 
course. After we have lost such a 
friend, it is no doubt true that we still 
continue to go about our daily occupa- 
tions and amusements much as we have 
done before. But the memory of him 
is none the less with us. Time does 
not in the least blur the outlines of his 
character as they remain in our minds. 
Indeed, I think those traits grow clearer 
as they recede, and that the character 
of our friend stands out in a light more 
and more distinct as time goes on. 



23 



FRANCIS AQUILA STOUT 

A STUDY 
By Gen. John Meredith Read 

jjRANCIS AQUILA STOUT 

belonged to a noble type of 
American manhood, one which 
may well serve as an example for com- 
ing generations. 

Why? Because, endowed with a 

vigorous intellect, and in the possession 

of an ample inherited fortune, he never 

supinely enjoyed prosperity. His mind 

24 




was constantly alert, and his physical 
and mental energies were incessantly 
employed in advancing the largest pub- 
lic interests, while never neglecting the 
many minor fields of usefulness which 
exist in a great metropolis like New 
York. His efforts were unceasing, 
through a long series of years, in behalf 
of many of the noblest charities which 
found their development under the im- 
pulse of his suggestive and philanthropic 
treatment. 

Mr. Stout was born in the city of 
New York on October 21, 1833, and 
died at the Thousand Islands, July 18, 
1892. He belonged to a historic family 
of English origin. His paternal grand- 
father owned and resided in the famous 
Philipse manor-house, now the city hall 
of Yonkers. His father, Mr. Aquila G. 
Stout, who was named after Colonel 
25 



Aquila Giles, a distinguished officer of 
the Revolution, was a wealthy and 
prominent merchant who became presi- 
dent of the Eagle Fire Insurance Com- 
pany in 1846, and continued in that 
office until he died, in June, 1858. His 
abilities as a financier were in great de- 
mand. He was for a long time a direc- 
tor of the Leather Manufacturers' Bank. 
It was said of him that he was a credit 
to any corporation, and that his every 
act was marked by nobility of purpose. 
Mr. Aquila G. Stout married his cous- 
in, Miss Anne Morris, the daughter of 
Lieutenant William Walton Morris, who 
served during the Revolutionary War as 
lieutenant of artillery in the Continental 
line. Her grandfather was Colonel 
Lewis Morris, who signed the Decla- 
ration of Independence, whose grand- 
father, Richard Morris, was the founder 
26 



of the manor of Morrisania. Among 
Colonel Lewis Morris's brothers were 
General Staats Long Morris, M.P., the 
governor of Quebec who married the 
Duchess of Gordon; and Gouverneur 
Morris, a member of the Continental 
Congress, assistant minister of finance 
during the Revolution, one of the fra- 
mers of the Constitution of the United 
States, and minister to France in the 
trying period from 179 1 to 1794. It 
was Gouverneur Morris who endeav- 
ored to save the life of Louis XVI., 
failing in which, he loaned two hundred 
thousand francs to Louis Philippe, and 
performed many other generous acts 
toward the French people. 

There is an interesting family asso- 
ciation connected with another brother, 
General Jacob Morris, who was an an- 
cestor of Mrs. Hamilton Fish, and the 
27 



great-granduncle of Mr. Francis A. 
Stout. General Jacob Morris was mar- 
ried in 1765, at the country seat of 
the great-great-grandfather of General 
Meredith Read ; while his great-nephew 
already mentioned, Mr. Stout, married 
one hundred and twenty years afterward 
the eldest daughter of General Meredith 
Read, the friendship between the two 
historic families having begun in 1673. 

The education of Mr. Francis A. 
Stout, when very young, was pursued 
for a short time under the direction of 
the Rev. Dr. Hawkes, but a larger por- 
tion of the formative period of his life 
was spent under the care of that lovely 
and distinguished man, the Rev. Dr. 
Henry A. Muhlenberg. Dr. Muhlen- 
berg had the happy faculty of discover- 
ing the natural but often latent bent of 
a boy's character. If it was toward 
28 



evil, he taught his pupil how to over- 
come and uproot it, and replace it by 
noble aspirations which would event- 
ually make him a useful and honorable 
member of society. But where he found 
a nature like that of young Stout, filled 
with genuine generosity and an instinct- 
ive charity, with an active sense of duty 
and an earnest desire to be of use to 
those about him, the doctor's pleasure 
was openly manifested. So highly did 
he estimate his character and gifts that 
young Stout became his favorite pupil. 
To any one who enjoyed the friendship 
or even the acquaintance of Dr. Muhlen- 
berg, it requires no effort to imagine the 
extent and value of his influence. In 
the case of young Stout it began with 
their first association, and it lasted until 
death. The writer often listened in his 
youth to the discourses of Dr. Muhlen- 
29 



berg delivered at the Church of the 
Holy Communion, and the memory 
and the influence of the gentle author 
of the hymn, " I would not live alway, 
I ask not to stay," survive with un- 
abated force. 

The home influences and the social 
surroundings of Mr. Stout were likewise 
of the highest description. From his 
father he learned the lesson of individ- 
ual integrity and of that fine sense of 
honor which was one of his own pecu- 
liar characteristics. From him, also, he 
insensibly gleaned a vast amount of 
practical information with regard to the 
business interests and the charitable 
needs of the great metropolis in which 
he was born. Through him he made 
the acquaintance of the most influen- 
tial financiers of his native city, and in 
the accumulation of practical knowledge 
30 



was aided and assisted at each step by 
parental example. 

His mother, also, was and is one of 
the most remarkable women of her gen- 
eration. Possessing an original genius 
which was inherent in all of the older 
generations of the Morris family, she 
added to the powers of an active mind 
the accumulations of a spirit cultivated 
with indomitable energy from infancy 
to age. There was no subject too small, 
there was no question too large, for her 
observation and analysis. Enjoying a 
wide acquaintance in the most cultured 
as well as the most fashionable circles of 
New York, which were largely recruited 
from her own family and its connec- 
tions, she maintained an influence and a 
supremacy in society which were undis- 
puted. She early awakened in the heart 
of her son a leaning toward steadfast 
31 



friendships. His own nature taught 
him to select his friends with care, but 
when once chosen to continue true to 
the end. 

Young Stout's boyhood was passed 
in the midst of delightful associations 
which included the agreeable people in 
the neighborhood of his father's coun- 
try seat, and the family circle which 
remained at the mansion of his great- 
grandfather, General Lewis Morris, an 
estate which was cut up into lots and 
sold just after the Civil War. The resi- 
dence of his great-granduncle, Gouver- 
neur Morris, was also the scene of fre- 
quent visits. The Lewis Morris house 
is gone, but the Gouverneur Morris 
house still remains very much as it was 
in the lifetime of that distinguished man. 
It is situated at the foot of One Hun- 
dred and Thirty-seventh Street east, 
32 



New York, where a large iron gateway 
opens to the grounds which slope to 
the East River. This fine old historical 
house, however, will soon also prob- 
ably go, for the estate is to be divided 
into lots and sold within the next two 
years. It is a comfort to know that 
an exact picture of it is preserved in 
the " Magazine of American History " 
of June, 1892. 

To mention the family intimates and 
associates in those days would be to call 
the roll of representative names in the 
society of the period, not only in New 
York and its vicinity, but also in Wash- 
ington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New- 
port, and Boston. 

Among the charming spots that were 
familiar to young Stout were the resi- 
dences of the Carys at Chelsea and at 
Nahant, Massachusetts. The common 
33 



ancestor of the distinguished families of 
Cary of Massachusetts and of Virginia 
was William Cary, mayor of Bristol, 
England, in 1546, sprung from the Carys 
of Devonshire, to whom Lord Hunsdon 
belonged. The Carys were the center 
of a most agreeable set, and were inti- 
mate associates of the writers connec- 
tions, the Otis family of Boston. The 
home life of the Carys is charmingly set 
forth in the delightful " Cary Letters " 
recently privately printed. These in- 
clude a journal written by Miss Harriet 
Otis, a daughter of Hon. Samuel Allyne 
Otis, during a visit to Saratoga, which 
is in the possession of her grandniece, 
and the writers cousin, Mrs. Samuel 
Eliot nee Emily Marshall Otis. In writ- 
ing to her father, Miss Otis says : u In 
the retreat of this most estimable family 
I have found, year after year, a felicity 
34 



connected with all the best feelings of 
my heart — a felicity which, were I al- 
ways to enjoy it, would tie my feeble, 
unaspiring heart too closely to the 
world, which would seem innocent and 
pure as that of our first parents. I can 
hardly recollect a period when Chelsea 
did not seem to me the most delightful 
abode I could imagine." 

The writer remembers meeting, in his 
youth, in Paris, Mr. Thomas Cary and 
his two daughters, who were there with 
the Motleys. Mr. Motley was at that 
moment greatly engrossed in researches 
for the second volume of his history of 
the Netherlands. One of Mr. Cary's 
daughters married Professor Louis 
Agassiz, and the writer remembers well 
the tribute which that celebrated man 
paid to his wife almost the last time he 
saw him. He said: "When I wish to 
35 



produce one of my scientific volumes 
I ask my dear wife to come into my 
library, and I sit down there and talk 
to her steadily for several hours. She 
then gets up and goes away, and at the 
end of the week she brings me, in classic 
English, the entire substance of my talk, 
thrown into one or more chapters. It 
is in this manner that all my later works 
have been produced." 

Young Stout possessed that kind of 
organization which, governed by a tact 
springing from the heart, both affords 
comfort and attracts sympathy. He 
was the most manly of men, and at the 
same time there was in him a fiber of 
feminine tenderness which endeared him 
to all who knew him. It was curious 
and interesting to see how in each circle 
into which he might enter, whether at 
home or abroad, he laid hold of the 
36 



attention of individuals and won their 
esteem and regard. 

Under the informing mind of Dr. 
Muhlenberg he pursued his classical and 
mathematical studies with becoming ar- 
dor, and fitted himself for entrance into 
the sophomore class in Columbia Col- 
lege. But at this moment in his career, 
in the pursuit of health, it was deemed 
advisable to give him an ocean trip, and 
to continue his studies in the brilliant 
atmosphere of Paris. He was left alone 
in that gay capital at an age when most 
youths would have been carried astray 
by their surroundings. But there was 
in him a steadiness of purpose, a devo- 
tion to the matter in hand, which kept 
him faithfully at work in an atmosphere 
filled with every seduction. His edu- 
cation at this period was pursued with 
such vigor and success that he was soon 
37 



qualified as an engineer, and it was this 
fact and these special studies which led 
him afterward to originate and push for- 
ward the New York State survey. 

At the close of his foreign sojourn 
he returned to New York and read law, 
thus filling his mind with precedents 
and principles which greatly increased 
his usefulness in after years. A little 
later he became the private secretary of 
the Hon. Hiram Barney, collector of the 
port, who is still alive in a green old age, 
and speaks with affectionate respect of 
Francis A. Stout. 

The practical character of Mr. Stout's 
mind was constantly manifested in the 
confidential office which he held, and 
which was likewise peculiarly fitted to 
call forth the delicacy, tact, and upright 
diplomacy which distinguished him in 
dealing with difficult questions or per- 
3* 



sons. There is a subtlety of intellect 
which is associated with, and springs 
from, intrinsic integrity combined with 
a judicial judgment. This Mr. Stout 
possessed in a high degree. It was 
essential to him always to know the 
truth, and even where its discovery 
proved the presence of an injury to 
himself, he covered the fault with the 
mantle of his abounding charity. 

Just as the possibilities of a large 
field of usefulness were bearing fruit, 
and the world on all sides looked bright 
and full of hope, young Stout was 
stricken by a long and lingering illness, 
which brought out the many manly and 
unselfish traits of his character. Lying 
upon his back for several years, and en- 
during that kind of imprisonment which 
women bear with peculiar courage, but 
which men shrink from with instinctive 
39 



horror, he supported his sufferings with 
a manly patience which excited the love 
and the respect of all his friends. Dur- 
ing this weary period he applied himself 
to the reading of the best literature, and 
to the cultivation of those studies which 
formed the basis of his subsequent 
career. In these pursuits he had the 
wise support of his maternal uncle, Mr. 
Arthur Morris, who possessed the most 
delightful talent for conversation, and 
who illustrated his themes by the most 
original and apt examples. In the after- 
dinner talk of Mr. Stout, the writer was 
constantly reminded both of Mr. Arthur 
Morris and of Mr. Stout's mother. Al- 
though these family resemblances were 
strikingly evident, there was in Mr. Stout 
an individuality of form and idea. 

It was at this time that his mind was 
especially directed to the public and 
40 



private charities of New York, and to 
the needs and wants of classes of the 
community who were still uncared for, 
and during the long watches of the night 
he evolved many thoughts and ideas 
which afterward found their place in 
the origin or development of some 
charitable work. He became, also, what 
he continued to be until the end of his 
life, an assiduous reader of the daily 
press, both of his own and of foreiga 
countries. Rejecting useless items, he 
systematized the daily life of the world, 
and pursued or corrected opinions there- 
on with a pertinacity which nothing 
could withstand. Like Charles Reade, 
the novelist, he assimilated and used a 
vast amount of practical information 
which he had derived from the columns 
of the different journals ; so that, if you 
asked him a question as to the situa- 
41 



tion of a certain subject, he was at once 
ready with a correct reply. 

There is nothing that so distinctly 
tests friendship, and the power of an 
individual to evoke it, as a lingering 
malady. Mr. Stout clearly showed at 
this period the extent and depth of the 
affection which he had awakened. His 
days were cheered by the presence of 
hearty sympathizers, who brought him 
news from the currents of daily life, and 
informed him of an atmosphere social, 
literary, scientific, and charitable, into 
which his state of health did not allow 
him to personally penetrate. In the 
course of these many interviews he ex- 
changed views which had arisen in his 
mind, and there went forth from his 
sick-chamber a direct influence for good, 
which bore fruit in many useful ways. 
After his recovery — for his vigorous 
42 



constitution eventually asserted itself — 
Mr. Stout never practiced a profession 
or actively engaged in business, except 
in connection with the supervision of 
estates and of his private affairs. He 
possessed one extraordinary gift, which 
was the keynote to his success and in- 
fluence. He had the power of render- 
ing the dryest subject attractive and 
interesting through his original and pic- 
turesque manner of treating it. The 
sources of his information seemed also 
to be inexhaustible. You might ask 
him a question upon almost any con- 
ceivable subject, and he would also have 
something useful and suggestive to say 
about it. Suggestiveness lay at the base 
of his genius. In considering a subject 
for the first time, his method of looking 
at it, his way of examining it, were full 
of suggestions that set on foot trains of 
43 



thought in the minds of all who listened 
to him. 

Mr. Stout was not a literary man, and 
yet he possessed the literary faculty in 
a high degree. If he was interested in 
a subject his mind was so permeated 
by it that he either threw out his ideas 
himself, in a trenchant, incisive, and at- 
tractive style in the periodicals of the 
day, or he suggested and formulated in 
the mind of another articles which bore 
the stamp of his individuality. I have 
known him to suggest a paper and to 
mark it out, not only in its outlines, but 
in its details, in such a characteristic and 
graphic manner, that his hearer carried 
away not only the thoughts enunciated, 
but even their color and vivacity. 

After his marriage, in 1884, his home 
became the center of a delightful circle, 
who enjoyed hospitalities which were 
44 



unceasing. Blessed with a young and 
beautiful wife who had received her 
education abroad, and whose cultiva- 
tion and tastes were in entire unison 
with his own, and whose family had 
been strong allies of his own family in 
the most trying moments of the coun- 
try's history, he manifested in a remark- 
able degree his powers of adaptation 
and of sympathy, which enabled him 
to win the earnest affection and deep 
devotion of one so much younger than 
himself. 

Gradually there assembled in their 
salons and around their table a group 
of persons who, while fashionable by 
position and association, were seriously 
devoted to beneficial labors in the com- 
munity at large. These were reinforced 
by the younger generation just setting 
forth upon the voyage of life, and whose 
45 



ideas and characters were influenced 
and formed for good by the unpedantic 
and sprightly conversation which carried 
with it an undertone of serious intent. 

Remembering Mr. Stout's training as 
a civil engineer, we are not astonished 
to find that a congenial subject so en- 
tirely possessed his mind that in work- 
ing it out to its legitimate result he be- 
came the father of the New York State 
survey. He found that the first offi- 
cial map of New York was prepared by 
C. J. Sauthier and was published in 1 779, 
and that this map embraced most of the 
tracts and patents of land granted by 
the colonial government, exclusive of 
the land granted within the bounds of 
the present State of Vermont, and that 
a marked feature of it was an attempt 
at topographical delineation. In pur- 
suing his investigations he reviewed the 
46 



labors of a federal court appointed by 
Congress, and of which his wife's great- 
great-grandfather, George Read of Del- 
aware, " the signer," was one of the 
commissioners to determine an impor- 
tant controversy in relation to territory 
between New York and Massachusetts. 
His attention was next directed to 
the second map of the State, which was 
prepared by Simeon DeWitt, who had 
served as geographer of the United 
States in the Revolutionary army, un- 
der the immediate command of General 
Washington, and was appointed in 1784 
surveyor-general of the State of New 
York, a post which he filled for nearly 
half a century. DeWitt's map was based 
upon his own surveys when in the United 
States service, and upon documentary 
evidence in the State archives, and first 
made its appearance in 1802. 
47 



In 1829 Burr's atlas of the State of 
New York was printed, after being offi- 
cially revised by the surveyor-general 
and controller, the former being Sim- 
eon DeWitt. By act of the legislature 
it was published at the expense of the 
State. Mr. James Terry Gardiner, the 
distinguished director of the State sur- 
vey, says: "While it has served, like 
its successors, the purposes for which it 
was chiefly intended, that of delineating 
as fully as possible the artificial condi- 
tion and progress of the State upon a 
mere skeleton of natural features, it has 
not served the great economic purposes 
to which properly constructed maps, 
based upon reliable surveys, are ap- 
plicable in any country, and especially 
in this commonwealth, whose natural 
advantages are second to those of no 
section of like extent upon the face of 
48 



the globe.'" Mr. Gardiner further says 
" that the errors and deficiencies of the 
best maps hitherto published are the un- 
avoidable results of imperfect surveys; 
for the only way of securing an accu- 
rate map is to cause a careful survey of 
the State to be made by experienced 
surveyors, using the most perfect instru- 
ments known to the profession. The 
surveys which have been made, being 
fragmentary and disjointed, and made 
by surveyors of varying qualifications, 
must necessarily abound in error; and 
as these errors have become more wide- 
ly known, attention has been officially 
called to them, from time to time." 

These facts, which Mr. Stout had 
gleaned for himself many years before 
the above words were written, made 
the deepest impression upon his mind. 
In pursuing his inquiries he found that 
49 



while it was true that the subject had 
been alluded to by various State officials 
from time to time, no real progress had 
been made toward an accurate survey 
of the State. He now set about a 
thorough examination of the results ob- 
tained by the United States coast sur- 
vey, which had established a series of 
stations in the southeastern part of the 
State, and of those of the " United States 
lake survey, which were approaching 
from the westward and planting sta- 
tions," says Mr. Gardiner, "on lakes Erie 
and Ontario, and the river St. Law- 
rence. Those independent, but reliable, 
systems of triangulation, gratuitously 
established and carried forward by the 
general government within our borders, 
served as standing examples for imita- 
tion, and as a forcible appeal to our own 
citizens and legislators to utilize them 
50 



with the consent of the national author- 
ities in charge, as parts of a general sys- 
tem, that should ultimately be made to 
cover the entire State, and thus furnish 
the requisite bases for uniform and ac- 
curate local surveys, as well as material 
for a reliable official map of the State* 
The way having thus been prepared/* 
continues Mr. Gardiner, " it remained for 
some man or body of men to initiate an 
effective movement in this direction." 

The man who stepped to the front 
and initiated this important work was 
Francis A. Stout. By his suggestion 
and under his direct impulsion, the 
American Geographical Society in the 
autumn of 1875 appointed a committee 
to examine into the necessity for a State 
survey. The composition of that com- 
mittee is an indication of the manner 
in which Mr. Stout managed to obtain 
51 



assistance in carrying out any great 
project to which his time and energies 
were pledged. He did not have him- 
self named chairman of the committee, 
but he put forward the president of 
the society, retaining only for himself a 
membership of the committee. In the 
transactions of this body he held the 
laboring oar, and as the result, Mr. 
Gardiner informs us that the committee 
found and reported in substance that 
there had never been an official survey 
of the State ; that there was no topo- 
graphical map of its surface, and that 
the maps published by private parties 
were grossly erroneous, the misplace- 
ment on them of important towns and 
cities often amounting to several miles. 
The vigorous representation of these 
facts to the legislature of 1876 resulted 
in an appropriation for making an ac- 
52 



curate trigonometric and topographical 
survey of the State, and in the appoint- 
ment of seven commissioners to conduct 
the same. 

Mr. Stout was the life and soul of the 
body of men who brought about this 
important work. From that day to the 
time of his death he never ceased to 
labor in season and out of season in be- 
half of a cause with which his name will 
always be most intimately associated. 
On his tomb there might well be en- 
graved these words : " Here lies the 
father of the State survey." 

That the writer has not exaggerated 
the extent and value of Mr. Stout's ser- 
vices in this respect may be clearly seen 
from the following extracts from a let- 
ter addressed by Mr. Gardiner to Mr. 
George Dillaway, one of the intimate 
friends and executors of Mr. Stout: 
53 



"From 1873 to 1875, when, as geog- 
rapher in charge of the geological and 
geographical survey of the Territories, 
my headquarters were in Washington, 
Mr. Stout, then vice-president of the 
American Geographical Society, made 
several visits to the offices of the sur- 
vey, and manifested a very lively inter- 
est in the careful topographical surveys 
that were then being made of Colorado. 
It was at this time that I think Mr. Stout 
first felt the possibility of securing for 
the State of New York a thorough topo- 
graphical survey which should result in 
maps similar in character to those of ad- 
vanced European countries, with which 
he was familiar. 

" He had investigated for himself the 

wretched condition of the maps of the 

State of New York, and the inaccurate 

surveys upon which they were based; 

54 



for in 1875, when the overstrain of ex- 
ploration forced me to resign my posi- 
tion, with no prospect, as the physicians 
told me, of ever being able to resume 
the rough work in the western moun- 
tains, Mr. Stout came to me at once, 
and laid before me his conception of 
an accurate and thorough topographical 
survey of the State of New York, asked 
me my views regarding the feasibility 
of it, and stated his determination to 
bring the matter before the attention of 
those who could control political action, 
and to push it by every means, until its 
necessity and importance were felt, and 
its execution begun. 

" I state these facts in order to make 
it clear to you that the conception of a 
State survey of New York, based on a 
triangulation of the highest order, was 
entirely due to Mr. Stout, and that he 
55 



came to me with the purpose and plan 
thoroughly matured in all its general 
features. He stated to me that he had 
been waiting only to find a man who 
could carry out his ideal before attempt- 
ing to establish the survey. I aided 
Mr. Stout in the perfection of his plan, 
in technical details, and, at his request, 
prepared for the Geographical Society 
a paper on the subject of a topographi- 
cal survey of New York, its necessities, 
its methods of execution, and its cost, 
which should serve as a basis of a plan 
of action. 

"During the year 1875 Mr. Stout 
devoted time and energy to interesting 
the president and prominent members 
of the Geographical Society, Governor 
Tilden, and many men prominent in 
political life. Among others, he inter- 
ested Dr. Hayes, the Arctic explorer, 
56 



who was elected a member of the legis- 
lature. As soon as the legislature met, 
a bill was prepared, and Mr. Stout went 
with me to Albany, taking letters of 
introduction to many prominent politi- 
cians, who afterward became firm friends 
of the survey. 

" In my judgment, the passage of the 
bill organizing the State survey in the 
spring of 1876 was due principally to 
the untiring efforts of Mr. Stout. We 
often went to Albany together in this 
matter, and I was a constant witness of 
his untiring and unselfish public spirit. 

" When the survey was organized, 
Mr. Stout was appointed one of the 
commissioners. Hon. John V. L. Pruyn, 
of Albany, was chairman of the com- 
mission. Among Mr. Stout's associ- 
ates were Governor Seymour, Vice- 
President Wheeler, Hon. Robert S. Hale, 
57 



President Barnard of Columbia College, 
Lieutenant-Governor Dorsheimer, and 
other distinguished men. By this com- 
mission I was chosen director of the 
State survey and had selected my chief 
assistants, when the opposition of the 
controller of the State made it evident 
that the money appropriated would be 
held back for a year. By these means 
the controller hoped to stop the survey, 
to which he was much opposed. At 
this point Mr. Stout stepped forward 
and offered to advance from his per- 
sonal means the sum necessary to carry 
on the survey for the first year, the fact 
being that the first year would neces- 
sarily be devoted to a reconnoissance 
for the primary triangulation, and prep- 
aration for the beginning of that impor- 
tant work. Through Mr. Stout's prompt 
help I was able to go forward and carry 
58 



out all that was necessary for the first 
year, and when at last the controller 
was obliged to pay the vouchers, I was 
able to return to Mr. Stout all that he 
had loaned to the survey. 

" The work then went straight for- 
ward, delayed only by the constant an- 
nual struggle for appropriations in the 
legislature. Both the public and the 
legislature had to be educated to the 
importance of this scientific work. In 
the long and constant efforts that fol- 
lowed, by which the annual appropria- 
tions were secured, Mr. Stout's time and 
means and influence were given, and 
his most encouraging help and brave 
spirit were my inspiration and support, 
until the work was at last brought to 
a close by Governor Hill's veto of the 
appropriation in 1885. The work of 
triangulation that was done is complete 
59 



in itself, is of the highest order, and 
remains as a secure foundation for any 
superstructure of topographical work 
that may hereafter be made. 

" The survey, which was Mr. Stout's 
conception, resulting in completed topo- 
graphical maps, he did not live to see 
realized, although the plan was sup- 
ported by the scientific men of the 
whole country. But of the wisdom of 
the plan and of its future execution, 
when the people of the State shall be- 
come more intelligent, and the politi- 
cians more under the influence of the in- 
telligent classes, there can be no doubt. 
When at last, instead of the present 
crude and inaccurate maps of New 
York, the scientific world and the pub- 
lic have at their command a true topo- 
graphical map of the State, I hope it 
will never be forgotten that the concep- 
60 



tion of this work, and the foundation 
upon which it rests, were due to the 
enlightened foresight and the unselfish 
efforts of our dear friend, Francis A. 
Stout" 

In the intervals of a busy life, Mr. 
Stout found time to attend to his duties 
as a trustee of the Greenwich Bank for 
Savings, as a director of the South Car- 
olina Railway Company, as a trustee of 
the New York Society Library, and as 
the very active and able senior vice- 
president of the American Geographical 
Society. He was also connected with 
various other literary, scientific, and 
charitable institutions in New York 
City. Among the latter were : the Or- 
thopedic Hospital ; the New York Asy- 
lum for the Blind, a State institution of 
which he was for twenty- five years a 
trustee and supporter ; the Cancer Hos- 
61 



pital ; and the Samaritan Home for the 
Aged, wherein he held high office and 
exercised great influence ; and he was 
for many years chairman of the meet- 
ings of the State " Charities Aid " As- 
sociation. His important charitable la- 
bors were internationally known, and 
received ample recognition throughout 
Europe at the time of his decease. 

Although Mr. Stout had distinguished 
family connections in the South, he sym- 
pathized from an early period with the 
abolition movement, and belonged to 
the Republican party. He was unceas- 
ingly active in support of the Union 
during the Civil War, and served as a 
special policeman in the draft riots in 
1863, in New York City. It was at 
this time that he rescued and concealed 
in his own house the Hon. John Jay, 
who was an object of hatred to the 
62 



mob. Mr. Jay passed many anxious 
hours in an upper chamber of the house 
in Ninth Street, only venturing out 
for a few moments after midnight to 
get a breath of fresh air. These two 
warm friends and connections further 
cemented in these trying moments a 
friendship which had originated years 
before. In this emergency Mr. Stout 
evinced that cool courage and far- 
sighted judgment which always distin- 
guished him in moments of peril. 

There was another civic duty from 
which he never shrank. Whenever 
called to serve upon the grand jury he 
came forward with alacrity, and so di- 
rected his investigations and so shaped 
his conclusions that valuable results 
invariably sprung from any initiative 
that he might take. The position of a 
grand juror is not an inviting one; it 
63 



is hedged with difficulties; it is sur- 
rounded by discomforts. The man 
who willingly accepts such functions 
and performs them with all honesty, 
and with entire devotion to the public 
weal, deserves to be ranked among the 
highest benefactors of the community. 
While seldom accepting office at the 
hands of the national government, Mr. 
Stout was deeply interested in all na- 
tional issues and questions. His theo- 
ries with regard to hard money and the 
national banking system were well de- 
fined and inflexibly maintained. He 
was one of the trusted friends and po- 
litical counselors of New York's war 
governor, the Hon. E. D. Morgan, who 
had the highest opinion of his political 
sagacity and foresight. In many of the 
important measures introduced into the 
senate by that eminent statesman, the 
64 



ideas and views of Mr. Stout are largely- 
represented. As a mark of intimate 
personal esteem and respect, Governor 
Morgan, a short time before his death, 
presented to Mr. Stout a magnificent 
pair of carriage horses, which survive 
to-day as memorials of the close rela- 
tions existing between those two. distin- 
guished men. And here one may be 
permitted to enlarge upon Mr. Stout's 
remarkable power of making and retain- 
ing friends. He had that sympathetic 
quality of mind and heart which led him 
to rejoice whenever he heard of the suc- 
cess of even a mere acquaintance; but 
when his friendship was really enlisted, 
there was no end to the exertions he 
put forth. If there was anything to be 
done to advance the interests of the in- 
dividual, he left no stone unturned, he 
neglected no opportunity, and he event- 
65 



ually triumphed, no matter how much 
time was required. This quality was 
readily recognized even by those who 
were but superficially acquainted with 
his many other admirable traits; and 
when he died, throughout the many 
circles wherein he was known, both at 
home and abroad, each person felt a 
keen sense of loss, and as if one of their 
earthly ties had been severed. 

Geography was one of Mr. Stout's 
favorite fields of study. Although vast- 
ly informed in this direction, he contin- 
ued to be always an earnest inquirer, 
who, keeping abreast of the discoveries 
of the age, was enabled, from time to 
time, to suggest new themes and new 
problems for solution. His reputation 
was of the highest among geographical 
students in all parts of the world, and 
the writer has heard some of the most 
66 



eminent European savants mention him 
in terms of the highest praise. His 
interest in geography led him into the 
investigation of the feasibility of a 
transcontinental canal through Nica- 
ragua. After exhaustive research he 
became convinced both of the possibil- 
ity and the paramount necessity of such 
a waterway ; and, as a patriotic Amer- 
ican, he desired that it should be under 
government control, foreseeing the gi- 
gantic advantages which our govern- 
ment would eventually derive thereby. 
Upon the organization of the Nicaragua 
Canal Construction Company, his ex- 
tended knowledge, his executive abil- 
ity, his large influence, arid high char- 
acter naturally led to his being elected 
president. 

The extent and variety of his labors, 
including international correspondence, 
67 



while holding this office, can scarcely be 
adequately indicated in such a place. 
After most arduous work in America 
and Europe, he resigned on account of a 
difference of opinion upon the financial 
theories which should govern the com- 
pany; and even those who differed 
from him felt, and did not hesitate to 
say, that the corporation had lost a 
most honorable, high-minded, and able 
administrator. The formal resolutions 
of the board of directors of the com- 
pany, which were unanimously passed 
upon his retirement, emphasized this 
view. 

We have referred to Mr. Stout's long 
and active association with the Amer- 
ican Geographical Society, of which he 
became a fellow in i860, was made hon- 
orary secretary in 1870, and held office 
as second and eventually as senior vice- 
68 



president from 1872 to the time of his 
death, in 1892. As early as 1865 the 
American Geographical Society issued 
a commission to Mr. Stout, as their 
foreign corresponding secretary, to visit 
Europe for the purpose of representing 
the society in kindred institutions, and 
to establish a more perfect system of 
exchanges of books, maps, charts, ta- 
bles, and other geographical and sta- 
tistical information with the various 
European governments. The official 
organ of the society says : " Histori- 
cal geography especially attracted Mr. 
Stout's attention, but he took a deep 
interest in every branch of the science, 
and closely followed its progress. He 
enriched the library of the society with 
valuable gifts, including rare atlases of 
the seventeenth and eighteenth centu- 
ries, and costly illustrated works; and 
69 



measures for the advancement of the 
association and the increase of its use- 
fulness called forth his wise criticism 
and suggestions, or enlisted his hearty 
cooperation. 

" He was the representative of the 
society in the International Congresses 
held at Antwerp and at Berne. His 
dignified bearing and strict courtesy 
told of long culture and a wide experi- 
ence of life, while those brought into 
closer relations with him learned to ap- 
preciate his acute and vigorous intel- 
lect, and to rely upon the sincerity of a 
nature made for friendship." 

It was in 1891 that Mr. Stout at- 
tended the Geographical Congress at 
Berne, Switzerland, as one of the Amer- 
ican delegates, and was appointed a 
vice-president of this important scien- 
tific gathering, which included the most 
70 



distinguished names in geographical sci- 
ence. The paper which he read at that 
time upon the Nicaragua Canal was 
never reported in full. It was listened 
to with close attention, and its remark- 
able analysis, its learned yet attractive 
statistics, were followed with eager at- 
tention and with repeated applause. Mr. 
Stout was particularly happy as a pre- 
siding officer. He united great courtesy 
and gentleness to quickness of percep- 
tion and decision, to which his habitual 
dignity lent impressive force. At this 
congress, as in former ones, he largely 
increased his circle of friends and ad- 
mirers, and when the news of his death 
reached Europe the sorrow expressed 
was genuine and enduring. 

Mr. Stout possessed the true geo- 
graphical spirit. He was not content 
simply to read the travels, adventures, 
7i 



and researches of others, but he be- 
came a traveler of keen perception and 
observation, who never forgot what he 
saw, and who always saw even the 
most minute things. His love of na- 
ture was one of his charms. After 
he had thoroughly explored all the 
beauties of the North American and 
European continents, he recommenced 
his journeys and renewed his investi- 
gations. He liked to ascend some vast 
mountain-chain and commune alone 
with the evidences of God's greatness ; 
and when he returned to the haunts of 
men he brought with him new and in- 
vigorating inspiration, and that origi- 
nality and freshness which close conver- 
sation with nature alone can awaken. 

In 1873 Mr. Stout, at the request of 
the State Department, assumed tempo- 
rary direction of the office in New York 
72 



of the commission to the Vienna Ex- 
position. He was afterward appointed 
a commissioner of the United States to 
Vienna, where his tact, urbanity, and 
wisdom solved more than one difficult 
question. He was also a commissioner 
from Nicaragua to the French Exposi- 
tion of 1889. He accepted this trust 
in order to bring the question of the 
Nicaragua Canal more directly to the 
attention of European nations. His task 
was a delicate one, for M. de Lesseps 
had absorbed the attention of France 
with the Panama Canal, and it required 
infinite tact and the influence of a pow- 
erful personality to obtain the official 
and public ear. He found in the person 
of his friend Mr. Medina, the Nicaraguan 
minister in Paris, an able and congenial 
coadjutor. As the result of the judi- 
cious labors of these two gentlemen, 
73 



public attention was widely attracted to 
a superb model of the proposed Nica- 
ragua Canal, which was exposed in the 
Nicaraguan section of the exposition, 
and was so realistic in its character that 
the lakes, rivers, and canal sections were 
filled with water. 

The difficulties of the situation were 
in no wise concealed, but the engineer- 
ing problems were in each case met and 
successfully demonstrated and deter- 
mined on the model, and before the 
eyes of the spectators. It can be easily 
understood that success crowned all the 
efforts of Mr. Stout, and that in spite of 
the delicate position in which he was 
placed, owing to the antagonistic in- 
terests of the Nicaragua and Panama 
canals, his high character and scientific 
attainments were recognized by the 
French government by the bestowal 
74 



upon him of the dignity and insignia of 
" Officer of Public Instruction." 

Mr. Stout's charming qualities of mind 
and heart were delightfully evinced in 
his home relations. Living unmarried 
until middle life, his filial devotion was 
at every instant manifested; and after 
his marriage his constant care was be- 
stowed upon his aged mother, who felt 
that she had not lost a son, while she 
had gained a daughter. And there 
never was, moreover, a man more thor- 
oughly fitted to make his home life a 
happy one. His delicacy of feeling and 
his uniform kindness manifested them- 
selves at every turn, and the variety of 
his ideas and conversation lent a vivid 
interest to daily intercourse. In the 
decoration and embellishment of his 
home he was also unsurpassed. He 
was one of the most cultivated and 
75 



learned authorities upon art and bric-a- 
brac, and his house bears witness to the 
accuracy of his taste and the extent of 
his knowledge. His acquaintance with 
art was not confined to sculpture, paint- 
ing, and architecture. It extended to 
the theater and to the opera. He was 
always to be seen on first nights when 
any remarkable play was to be put upon 
the stage. His love of music also had 
been scientifically trained by a close 
study of the work of the best masters 
and of their reproduction in Europe 
and America. A simple air would 
carry him from grave to gay. While 
thoroughly conversant with the heavy 
German school of Wagner, he preferred 
the lighter and more human touch of 
French and Italian genius. 

Mr. Stout's father had purchased an 
estate at Newport upon which he erected 
76 



a residence at a period when cottage 
life had scarcely begun — the same year 
and by the same builder as the cottage 
of George Bancroft. In early boyhood 
the writer spent several summers at 
Newport, and can only remember at 
that time the cottages of Mr. Sidney 
Brooks, George H. Calvert, Mr. Richard 
Derby, and those of the Bruens and the 
Middletons of South Carolina. At that 
time hotel life prevailed. The Atlantic 
House, the Ocean House, the Fillmore, 
and the Bellevue, each had its fashion- 
able coterie. Bellevue Avenue could 
not be said to exist, and one made his 
way through countless gates which were 
opened by young urchins who were glad 
to pick up the pennies showered upon 
them. 

After the death of the elder Mr. Stout 
his son turned his attention to the em- 
77 



bellishment of his place. Having a gen- 
uine talent for landscape gardening, he 
eventually produced really marvelous 
effects in that enchanting home upon 
the cliffs whereon now stands the ma- 
rine residence of Mr. W. K. Vanderbilt. 
Mr. Stout, moreover, succeeded in pro- 
ducing in his hot and cold glass-houses 
some of the most exquisite tropical 
fruits, and the orchids which he grew 
formed an important chapter in floral 
culture. He was one of the founders 
of the old Newport Reading-room, that 
most delightful resort where before the 
war the representative men of the North 
and South were wont to gather in social 
converse, and the historic names of the 
country were most agreeably illustrated. 
It was a little earlier than this that the 
writer remembers the visit of Henry 
Clay to Newport. The old statesman 
78 



was sadly broken, and when the men 
embraced him and the women kissed 
him, and he heard him on all sides 
spoken of as frgreat man, the extremely- 
youthful writer was puzzled to under- 
stand how such a term could be applied 
to such an enfeebled specimen of hu- 
manity. 

In the last century Newport was the 
resort of representative Southern fam- 
ilies, and Mr. George Mason, in his 
" Reminiscences," records the visit of 
the writer's great-grandfather, George 
Read, the signer, at the close of the 
Revolutionary War. Newport contin- 
ued to be a place of Southern resort un- 
til the Civil War, and among those most 
warmly received was Colonel Magruder, 
then in command at Fort Adams, who 
afterward became the famous Confeder- 
ate general. 

79 



We have seen that Mr. Stout was a 
" Christian gentleman given to hospi- 
tality/ ' There was another agreeable 
phase in his many-sided life. As a 
member and frequenter of the foremost 
clubs of New York, and of many like 
associations in the country at large and 
abroad, he will long be remembered as 
an eminently clubable man — that is to 
say, one saturated with the amenities 
of life, and so unobtrusively informed 
upon a wide range of subjects, and so 
rigidly careful of the feelings of others, 
as to weave many threads of friendship, 
and to leave a distinct void when called 
away. There are choice coteries in all 
of the older clubs, who were for years 
closely associated with Mr. Stout, and 
who will cherish his memory as long 
as life lasts. The writer recalls the 
moments fraught with pleasure passed 
80 



with Mr. Stout in years gone by at 
the Union, the Knickerbocker, the New- 
York Yacht, the Union League, the old 
Newport Reading-room, and the Cen- 
tury clubs. The thought of those ex- 
periences brings into memory many 
eminent and charming friends who have 
passed over to the majority, and in- 
cludes an equal number who now lament 
the unexpected departure of a tried and 
true friend. 

In his love of mountain-climbing and 
in his devotion to yachting Mr. Stout 
exhibited the robust leanings of his 
English ancestors. He took the deep- 
est interest in the New York Yacht 
Club, and within a comparatively short 
time of his death attended its annual 
regatta. As an owner of a yacht him- 
self, he made many cruises and showed 
himself to be an able amateur naviga- 

81 



tor. He had distinctly the real yacht- 
ing spirit, for he loved long voyages 
under sail, and detested the mechanical 
progression under steam. I am speak- 
ing of him now as a yachtsman, for he 
likewise dearly enjoyed ocean trips upon 
the great Atlantic steamers. The sea 
in every shape interested him, and it is a 
question which delighted him the most, 
the bracing atmosphere of the moun- 
tains and the changing hues of their 
snow-clad summits, or the salty sting of 
a sweeping sea-breeze. 

Mr. Stout took a lively interest in the 
Metropolitan Club, of which he was one 
of the founders, and was fully convinced 
that it would become one of the great 
representative clubs of the world. The 
writer has spoken in another place of 
Mr. Stout's connection with the Repub- 
lican party, but it must be said that his 
82 



sympathies were not enlisted in behalf 
of a high protective tariff. Indeed, his 
independence in this particular was the 
result of extended studies and of su- 
preme convictions. His position and 
opinions were so well known as to lead 
to his election, in 1880, as an honorary 
member of the Cobden Club. 

Mr. Stout was an always welcome 
member of the " Round Table," a din- 
ner club which holds in New York the 
same position which the " Diner des 
Spartiates" has so long maintained in 
Paris. In the give and take of this 
brilliant group of men, Mr. Stout's con- 
versational gifts were readily acknowl- 
edged and appreciated. His power of 
listening was as remarkable as his 
power of talking. The former faculty 
grew out of his innate courtesy, and his 
eagerness for information. This earnest 
83 



interest in every conceivable subject 
contributed largely to his success. 

Mr. Stout was not only a typical 
American of the best school, character- 
ized by the broadest views of national 
patriotism, but he was also a typical 
New Yorker. Associated through his 
family with the foundation, the tradi- 
tions, and the progress of his native 
city, he was devotedly attached to the 
metropolis where his youth and ma- 
ture manhood were principally passed. 
Knowing intimately and appreciating 
thoroughly the advantages and beauties 
and manifold charms to be found in the 
society and the collections of foreign 
capitals, he always returned to his na- 
tive place with renewed affection, which 
grew with his years and deepened with 
his experience. There was no New 
Yorker who had more thoroughly ex- 
84 



plored the sunny and the mournful sides 
of the great city. A welcome guest in 
that innermost select circle of social life 
to which he belonged by birth, instinct, 
and accomplishments, he still was thor- 
oughly acquainted with the painful and 
distressing phases of human life scat- 
tered throughout less smiling districts. 
His abounding charity led him to seek 
out the deserving poor, and to join 
in the various charitable undertakings 
which ministered to their various needs. 
The quality of human sympathy so 
pervaded his daily life that when he 
died there was a universal expression 
of grief from every class in the com- 
munity, which found its way not merely 
through the public press, but through 
innumerable private channels. It was 
touching to hear the words of sorrow 
which were spoken by old servants who 
85 



had long since gone away, and these 
evidences of respectful admiration were 
echoed by those who had remained in 
his service. In looking over the count- 
less letters received upon the occasion 
of his death, one is struck by the unani- 
mous tribute to his character as a friend, 
as a man of large and superior intellect, 
of great strength of character, governed 
by a tender appreciation of the feelings 
of others, and of remarkable executive 
ability, which were combined with a pa- 
triotic foresight and wisdom, entitling 
him to the respect and regard of his 
countrymen. In foreign countries his 
loss was unanimously deplored, and the 
consensus of the public press universally 
praised his high character, his delight- 
ful social qualities, his superior gifts of 
mind, and his charitable and scientific 
labors. 

86 



The best representation of his power- 
ful and sympathetic face is the imperial 
photograph by Eugene Piron which the 
11 Figaro " displayed in 1891 in its gal- 
lery of distinguished men. 



87 




THE NICARAGUA CANAL 
By Commander Henry C. Taylor 

is fitting that some record of 
Mr. Stout's connection with 
the Nicaragua Canal should 
appear in any account of his life and 
services, for among many evidences of 
his ability and public spirit no one is 
more striking than his efforts to bring 
forward that great enterprise. 

It was at the close of President Ar- 
thur's administration that the efforts 
hitherto made to interest the commer- 

88 



cial world in the canal were given up, 
and a treaty was negotiated between 
the United States and Nicaragua, hav- 
ing for its object the construction of the 
canal by our government. This treaty 
was pending before the senate when 
Mr. Cleveland became President, and he 
was not slow to withdraw it from the 
senate, and to announce his disapproval 
of it. He gave his full approval to 
the enterprise, but declared it to be the 
work for private capital and energy, 
supported indeed by the good-will of 
the government, but distinctly not work 
for the government itself to undertake. 
It was at this time, in the spring of 
1885, when the prospects of the canal 
seemed to be at their darkest, that a 
gentleman interested deeply in the mat- 
ter and who had studied it attentively 
was discussing the canal with Judge 
89 



Daly, the veteran jurist and geographer, 
when the judge, who shared in the dis- 
appointment of those interested in the 
canal, said, after some reflection : "There 
is one man who may do much to for- 
ward this great undertaking. I know 
of no one who could do so much. It is 
Mr. Francis A. Stout, the vice-president 
of the Geographical Society. He alone 
possesses the rare combination of busi- 
ness qualities and financial knowledge 
joined to the capacity to appreciate and 
sympathize with a vast public work. 
I will take you to him, and if he will 
join in the work I have great hopes of 
the future." A little later, at a dinner 
at Mr. Stout's house, the state of affairs 
was laid before Mr. Stout, who was 
found to be already thoroughly con- 
versant with the general features of the 
canal, and recognizing perhaps more 
90 



than any one who has ever been con- 
nected with the enterprise its true 
relation to the world's commerce, its 
overpowering influence upon American 
trade and shipping. 

At various interviews in the month 
succeeding this dinner, Mr. Stout 
mapped out with great clearness to 
Judge Daly and a few others the gen- 
eral plan of operations which he advised 
should be adopted. This plan Irad for 
its aim to bring the canal to the notice 
of the business public generally, and 
through them to the leading financiers. 
His plan was broad in its conception and 
most skilfully worked out in its details, 
and no sooner was it accepted by the 
little group, who gladly followed his 
wise advice, than he threw himself per- 
sonally into the vigorous working out 
of his own plan. 

91 



From that time forth, under his wise 
leadership and counsel, the enterprise 
was steadily brought forward to the no- 
tice of the public, and men of the best 
standing throughout the country were 
clearly shown the solid value of the 
undertaking from a business stand- 
point, and its large importance as a 
national and international enterprise. It 
was to Mr. Stout's wide knowledge of 
and acquaintance with eminent men in 
America and abroad that the project 
was largely indebted for the high char- 
acter of the group which formed the 
nucleus of the great company which has 
since grown out of it. 

When that company was formed Mr. 
Stout was its first president — an office 
he accepted with reluctance when urged 
to do so by such men as the late Mr. 
Frederick Billings and other old friends 
92 



of the canal, and from which he later 
withdrew, though continuing always to 
strive for the success of this noble work. 
But it is in the original promotion of 
the project that his name will be always 
remembered as one whose faithful and 
valuable service and leadership sustained 
the hopes of the friends of the canal, 
and when this great waterway is com- 
pleted, when ships are sailing freely be- 
tween the oceans, and when the com- 
merce of the world lavishes praise 
upon the founders of a work so precious 
to them, then prominent among those 
founders will be inscribed the name of 
Francis A. Stout, to whose wisdom, in- 
telligence, and devotion the Nicaragua 
Canal is so largely indebted. 



93 




NOTICES OF THE PRESS 

From the New York Times 

|R. FRANCIS A. STOUT, 

whose death at Alexandria 
Bay Monday was announced 
in the " Times " yesterday, was a man 
very highly regarded by a wide circle 
of friends. He had never been in busi- 
ness, and, perhaps, owing in part to the 
fact that his health had been at no time 
strong, had never been very prominent 
in public affairs. And yet he had al- 
ways been a most public-spirited and 
94 



patriotic man. He was one of those 
men of fortune and family position 
whose sympathies, during the decade 
which preceded the war, were strongly 
on the antislavery side. A generous 
and warm-hearted man, he hated op- 
pression in all its forms, and was from 
his early days a friend of the slave. 
He was interested also in the philan- 
thropic enterprises of the war time. 
Without having taken a leading part 
in politics, he has always been active 
in the movements for reform in city 
and national politics. He interested 
himself also in many public and chari- 
table institutions. He was one of the 
vice-presidents of the Geographical So- 
ciety. His most conspicuous relation, 
however, of late years, has been as 
president of the Nicaragua Canal Con- 
struction Company, which enterprise 
95 



owed its auspicious beginnings and the 
favorable reception given it by the 
country largely to his wise and tactful 
management. Mr. Stout was of New 
York origin, and, with the exception of 
a residence of some years' duration in 
Paris, had always lived in New York. 
He was greatly attached to this city, 
and cared to live nowhere else. His 
father was, we believe, from West- 
chester County, and was connected 
with the shipping interest; his mother 
was a Miss Morris of Morrisania. In 
1884 he was married to a daughter of 
General Meredith Read, who survives 
him ; he is survived also by his mother 
and sister. 

It is as a man and a friend that Mr. 
Stout will be best remembered. His 
social relations have been very exten- 
sive. He was a member of many clubs, 
96 



the Century, the Union, the Union 
League, the Knickerbocker, and others, 
and he has always been much in gen- 
eral society. The fine qualities of his 
mind and heart, his humor, his percep- 
tions, keen, if very kindly, his knowl- 
edge of men, his great acquaintance 
with art and affairs were widely rec- 
ognized. But perhaps his most re- 
markable quality was his gift for friend- 
ship. Sincere, affectionate, particularly 
a gentleman, full of that quality difficult 
to define but known as good-fellow- 
ship, he was quick to recognize and 
appreciate these traits in men. But, 
although a friend of many men, there 
were a few for whom he reserved a spe- 
cial place in his regard, and by whom 
he will be profoundly missed. For 
them, however, his life and qualities 
will always be a grateful recollection. 
97 



From the New York Evening Post 

Francis A. Stout, whose funeral 
took place yesterday, was a type of a 
patriotic and public-spirited American 
worthy of all imitation. Thirty years 
ago it was not so usual as it is now for 
a man of independent means to give his 
service to the community and the coun- 
try. It was thought that an American 
without an occupation must live in Paris 
or Nice, that there was nothing here to 
employ him. But Mr. Stout at that 
day found his happiness in giving his 
labors to his country. Since the war 
he had been very active, although in 
an inconspicuous way, in all move- 
ments of reform and in the general 
service of the public. His work for 



the State survey, the Nicaragua Canal, 
and other public objects may be men- 
tioned. He brought to this work a 
mind of great natural strength, a sound 
and just judgment, and unsurpassed 
tact and knowledge of men. It is the 
opinion of those who knew him best, 
that, had his health been more vigorous 
flian it was, he might, with his strong 
intellect and his great skill and tenacity 
of purpose, have risen very high indeed 
in any line of work he might have 
undertaken. He was a man absolutely 
to be trusted. So much may be said 
of him on the public side. On the 
social side, Mr. Stout had a lively in- 
terest in so many phases of society, art, 
and affairs, in life, in short, as to make 
him most delightful and welcome com- 
pany. It may be added that in the 
opinion of those who knew him most 
99 



intimately he had the greatest gift of 
friendship they have ever known. One 
other quality should not escape notice : 
he was one of those who illustrate the 
truth that the character of the gentle- 
man is not a convention, but a reality, 
with a sure and permanent foundation 
in human nature, for he possessed that 
character to an eminent degree. 



From the Albany Argus 

Francis Aquila Stout, another 
prominent citizen of New York, has 
passed away. He was born in the city 
of New York, October 21, 1833. His 
father was Aquila Giles Stout, an emi- 
nent merchant of the city, and for many 
years president of the Eagle Fire Insur- 
100 



ance Company. His ancestors on his 
father's side were English Quakers, and 
on his mother's side he was descended 
from one of the oldest and most distin- 
guished families in the United States, 
his great-grandfather being Lewis Mor- 
ris, one of the signers of the Declaration 
of Independence and a general in the 
Revolutionary Army, and his greatuncle 
being Gouverneur Morris, the famous 
and historic minister to France during 
the French Revolution. 

Mr. Stout was educated as a civil 
engineer in this country, and afterward 
took a regular course of study abroad, 
but, having inherited a handsome for- 
tune, he never practiced the profession. 
He was active all his life in charitable 
works, and was for a number of years 
a trustee of the " Greenwich Bank for 
Savings," a director of the South Caro- 

IOI 



Una Railway Company, vice-president 
of the American Geographical Society, 
a trustee of the New York Society Li- 
brary, the New York Institution for the 
Blind, the Samaritan Home for the Aged, 
and was also connected with other liter- 
ary and charitable institutions in the city 
of New York. Mr. Stout was most act- 
ive in the support of the Union during 
the Civil War, and served as a special 
policeman in the dreadful draft riots 
of 1863 in New York, being under fire 
many hours. He took a prominent 
part in the movements that resulted in 
the establishment of the State survey. 
Having been led to perceive the urgent 
need of a trigonometrical survey of the 
State of New York from observing er- 
rors in existing maps, he interested the 
American Geographical Society in the 
subject, and subsequently was particu- 
102 



larly active in securing the passage of 
the act providing for an accurate trigo- 
nometrical and topographical survey of 
the State. He was also most interested 
in the Nicaragua Canal project, and 
was the president of the first company 
formed in recent years to carry on that 
great work. During the last exposition 
in Paris he was commissioner for the 
republic of Nicaragua to the exposition, 
and for his work and ability displayed 
in that office received from the French 
government the decoration of Officer of 
Public Instruction. 

Mr. Stout was a man of the highest 
culture and refinement, and of the most 
loyal patriotism — one of those old-time 
gentlemen whose high character and 
noble lives have done so much in the 
past to make our country what it is. 

He leaves a widow, the eldest daugh- 
103 



ter of General Meredith Read and sis- 
ter of Major Harmon P. Read of this 
city. 

From the Galigna?ii Messenger 

The Hon. Francis Aquila Stout, 
son-in-law of General Meredith Read, 
died suddenly of pneumonia on Mon- 
day evening last, at the Thousand Isl- 
ands, Alexandria Bay, N. Y. 

Mr. Stout was the senior vice-presi- 
dent of the American Geographical 
Society, one of the founders and com- 
missioners of the New York State 
survey, and formerly president of the 
Nicaragua Canal Company. He was 
educated as an engineer in Paris and 
as a barrister in New York. Possess- 
ing an ample fortune, he devoted him- 
104 



self assiduously to scientific studies and 
to charitable works, and was president 
and director of many important chari- 
table associations in New York. His 
vigorous intellect, his large experience, 
his varied culture, his charming man- 
ners, and his honorable character won 
him a multitude of warm friends both in 
America and Europe, who will deeply 
feel his loss. Mr. Stout belonged to a 
historic family. His paternal grand- 
father owned and resided in the fa- 
mous Philipse Manor-house, now the 
town hall of Yonkers. His maternal 
great-grandfather, Colonel Lewis Mor- 
ris (great-grandson of Colonel Richard 
Morris, first Lord of the Manor of Mor- 
risania), was one of the signers of the 
Declaration of Independence; and his 
great-granduncles were General Staats 
Long Morris, M.P., and Governor of 
105 



Quebec, who married the Duchess of 
Gordon, and the Hon. Gouverneur 
Morris, member of the Continental 
Congress, assistant minister of finance 
during the Revolution, one of the 
framers and signers of the Constitution 
of the United States, and minister to 
France from 1791 to 1794. Mr. G. 
Morris tried to save the life of Louis 
XVI. Failing in this, he lent two hun- 
dred thousand francs to Louis Philippe, 
and performed many other generous 
acts toward the French people. 

Mr. Stout was one of the commis- 
sioners to the French Exposition of 
1889, and one of the vice-presidents of 
the Geographical Congress at Berne in 
1 89 1. He married several years ago 
the eldest daughter of General Mere- 
dith Read, who was educated at the 
Convent of the Assumption at Auteuil. 
106 



His wife survives him, also his widowed 
mother, who, at the age of eighty- 
seven, is in full possession of her vigor- 
ous faculties, and his sister, Mme. de 
Vaugrigneuse, the widow of the Baron 
de Vaugrigneuse, formerly French 
charge d'affaires at various European 
courts. 



107 



RESOLUTIONS OF SOCIETIES 

By the Geographical Society 




R. FRANCIS A. STOUT, one 
of the vice-presidents of the 
American Geographical Soci- 
ety, died on the 18th of July, 1892, at 
the Thousand Island House, Alexandria 
Bay, N. Y. 

Mr. Stout was a native of New York 
City, and here received his early educa- 
tion. He studied engineering in Paris 
and afterward read law in this city, but 
he never entered upon a professional or 
business career. Inheriting a fortune, 
he devoted himself to scientific and lit- 
108 



erary pursuits, and, in a large sense, to 
social obligations; and he was actively 
engaged in the work of many important 
charities. He was one of the founders 
and commissioners of the Trigonomet- 
rical Survey of the State of New York, 
and, for some years, president of the 
Nicaragua Canal Company. He became 
a fellow of the American Geographical 
Society in i860, was made honorary 
secretary in 1870, and held office as a 
vice-president from 1872 to 1892. 

Historical geography especially at- 
tracted Mr. Stout's attention, but he 
took a deep interest in every branch 
of the science, and closely followed its 
progress. He enriched the library of 
the society with valuable gifts, includ- 
ing rare atlases of the seventeenth and 
eighteenth centuries and costly illus- 
trated works; and measures for the 
109 



advancement of the association and the 
increase of its usefulness called forth 
his wise criticism and suggestion, or 
enlisted his hearty cooperation. 

He was the representative of the so- 
ciety in the International Geographical 
Congresses at Antwerp and at Berne. 

His dignified bearing and even cour- 
tesy told of long culture and a wide 
experience of life, while those brought 
into closer relation with him learned to 
appreciate his acute and vigorous intel- 
lect, and to rely upon the sincerity of a 
nature made for friendship. 



By the New York Society Library 

Francis Aquila Stout was elected 
a member of the board of trustees of the 
New York Society Library in 1875. 



His distinguishing characteristics of 
order and method, prudence and cau- 
tion, fidelity and devotion, coupled 
with unfailing urbanity in affairs and 
uniform courtesy to all, constituted 
him a most valuable and most valued 
member. 

Seldom absent, his good sense and 
sound judgment were ever at the ser- 
vice of the institution. Educated at 
one of the most famous schools of 
Paris, his thorough knowledge of the 
French language would have rendered 
him one of the most useful members 
of the Library Committee on which he 
had just been appointed. 

By the death of Mr. Stout a vacancy 
has been created not easy to fill. 

To his colleagues of the Board, some 
of whom enjoyed the privilege of his 
intimacy, his loss is not to be measured 
in 



by any ordinary words or customary 
expressions of regret. 

Confronted by the seeming inade- 
quacy of the language at their com- 
mand to render in any fitting way the 
scope and depth of their feelings, this 
Board unwillingly contents itself with 
adopting this feeble minute. 



By the Samaritan Home for the Aged 

At the time of his death Mr. Stout 
was vice-president of the Executive 
Committee of this society. 

The committee held a meeting on 
August 26, 1892, when Mr. F. M. 
Bacon acted as secretary. The min- 
utes show that the following resolution 
was passed and Mr. Bacon requested to 
send a copy to Mrs. Stout : 



"Resolved, That by the death of Mr. 
Francis A. Stout the Samaritan Home 
for the Aged has lost a very valuable 
and dear friend. 

"Since 1874 he was a member of 
the Advisory Committee; since 1879 a 
member of the Executive Committee, 
and since 1883 its vice-president. 

" By his uniform courtesy and urban- 
ity of manner he endeared himself to 
his fellows on the Board, and by his 
excellent judgment and punctilious per- 
formance of duty he won the respect of 
all and rendered very valuable service 
to the society. 

"Resolved, That the members of this 
Committee tender their heart-felt sym- 
pathy to the family of Mr. Stout, to 
whom the secretary is requested to for- 
ward a copy of these resolutions/ ' 



113 



By the Institution for the Blind 

Extract from meeting of the Board of Managers of the New 
York Institution for the Blind, at meeting held November 
2, 1892. 

Resolved, That by the death of Fran- 
cis Aquila Stout the New York In- 
stitution for the Blind has lost a tried 
counselor and a warm friend. He was for 
twenty-four years a manager of this insti- 
tution, and during all that time he never 
failed to perform with cheerfulness and 
zeal any duty to which he was assigned. 

He had the welfare of the institution 
much at heart, and took a deep interest 
in all that concerned the education of 
the blind. By his uniform courtesy he 
endeared himself to all with whom he 

came in contact. 

114 



His judgment was excellent and coun- 
sel highly valued. 

Resolved, That a copy of these reso- 
lutions be sent by the secretary to the 
family of Mr. Stout, with an assurance 
of the deep sympathy of each member 
of this Board. 

F. Augustus Schermerhorn, 
Secretary, 



"5 




u6 



